Winter's Eclipse
by Lynne Matsui
Summary: Lynne, a fifteen year old punk-goth girl, is a part of a group called the Tarot. Yes, it is named after the Tarot cards, and this club frequently has readings and such. One such reading, on the exact moment of the solstice, could change her life. Forever


_**Courtney Davies**_

_**Cover art by **_**poetically-pathetic**_** on Deviantart**_

Characters - (MAJOR ARCANA ONLY)

Lynne; Death (Reverse) [Stagnation, immobility, slow changes, a narrow escape, cheating death]

Jening; The Fool (Positive) [New beginnings, new adventures, new opportunities, unlimited possibilities, pleasure, passion, thoughtlessness, rashness]

Lilly; Hierophant 'Heiro' (Reverse) [ Unconventionality, unorthodoxy, an inventor]

Grayson; The Tower (Reverse) [Following old ways, a rut, entrapment, caught in a bad situation, imprisonment]

Tyrone; The Devil 'Dev', (Postive) [Ravage, weird or strange experience, downfall, unexpected failure, controversy, violence, disaster, an ill-tempered person]

Elijah; Emperor (Positive) [Accomplishment, confidence, wealth, stability, leadership, father/brother/husband, achievement, a capable person]

Blaire; Empress (Positive) [Action, development, accomplishment, mother/sister/wife, evolution]

Keegan; The Sun (Positive) [Satisfaction, accomplishment, success, love, joy, engagement or a happy marriage]

Evelyn; The Moon (Positive) [Deception, trickery, disillusionment, error, danger, disgrace, double-dealing]

Quentin; Judgement 'Judge' (Reverse) [Delay, disappointment, indecision, procrastination, theft, worry]

Something Lynne never was... She bit her lip, chewing on the end of a pencil as she thought. In front of her was a blank sheet of paper where, eventually, her project would be written. Unfortunately, it just seemed as if she was getting nowhere with this. With a quiet sigh, she pushed herself away from her oak desk, the rolling chair sliding backwards. She spun, tucking her legs in as the chair swivelled. Eventually, she stopped the chair in front of the balcony window. She smiled as the city before her seemed to spin. With hazel eyes, she surveyed the growing darkness, waiting for her world to level out once more.

Once the city was not a spinning blur, she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the windowsill, and her chin on her palms. At times, the city was quite nice. Like now, Lynne couldn't imagine anywhere she would rather be. The tiny twinkling of lights brightened the night, casting a cheery spin on what she knew what must be going on. She turned away just as she heard the startling bang of a gunshot, squeezing her eyes shut. Things like this happened every night. Tonight wasn't any different. Tomorrow, on the news, there would be a new collection of names displayed, and an assortment of different suspects. Too bad the police never actually caught anyone.

She got up to flick off the light, just as a dog started to bark, causing several more to take up the call. Their voices were what lulled Lynne to sleep that night, pulling her thoughts away from what awful crime had just been committed, and to how much she hated this place. The bright lights only disguising the death in every alleyway, the brutal violence she knew lurked around every corner... And those stupid dogs that just wouldn't shut up.

_____________

The next morning, she woke up as her alarm went off. Grumbling, she rolled over, smacking the alarm clock until the radio stopped that horridly annoying beeping. Lynne opened her eyes slowly, shielding her eyes from the sun streaming in from her window. How tiresome, she thought as she rolled over further, not-so-gracefully falling off the bed, a loud, echoing 'thump!' being the result. "Oh for the love of--" She winced as the screeching of her mother cut her off.

"Lynne! WHAT'S THAT NOISE I JUST HEARD?"

"Nothing, Mom! I just... Tripped!"

"WELL THEN YOU BETTER CLEAN YOUR ROOM, SHOULDN'T YOU?! How many times have I told you? But no, you continue to just let it get worse.."

"Oh, just shut UP!" She mumbled under her breath, letting her mother continue to screech as Lynne grabbed her iPod, shoving the noise-cancelling buds into her ears.

Today was Monday; the start of another boring school week. Grabbing clean clothes from her closet, she headed off to the washroom to get ready. Looking a bit more presentable in her dark attire, chains clinking in the form of a make-shift belt, she stumbled downstairs, where her mother had finally stopped yelling. Plopping herself into a barstool at the counter, and looked expectantly at her mother, who raised an eyebrow. "Why are you looking at me? You're fourteen, going on fifteen, for goodness' sakes! You can make your own breakfast!"

Letting out a defeated sigh, Lynne slid from her seat, rummaging in cupboards until she got her standard week-day fare of cereal in a small bowl. She was about to poke her head into the fridge for the milk when the phone rang. Closing the door quickly, she yelled, "MINE!" and sprang towards the phone. There was always the odd chance that it might be one of her friends. It was _never_ a good idea to have friends speak with Mother. "Hello?" She spoke into the phone, and grinned as she recognized the voice,

"Well hello, Death! I do hope you're coming to school today... There's an important meeting today after-school for the Tarot."

The speaker, Evelyn, was of course referring to Lynne by her Tarot card name, the one that had been drawn on her first day of joining the group. Her card had been the reversed, and in this city, it always made her nervous, for the reverse of Death could mean many things... Most of them weren't all that great. Shaking off that feeling of dread she got when a member of the Tarot called her by card, she quickly replied, "Hey, Moon. Yeah, I'll be there." With a yawn, Lynne took the cordless phone with her as she went to grab milk for her cereal, "Who else is coming?"

"Oh, I think everyone'll be there!" Evelyn said cheerfully, while Lynne groaned.

"Even Tower and Sun?" 'Tower', Grayson, and 'Sun', Keegan, had this... Love-hate relationship. At times, the two were the best of friends (but no more than that!) but their constant bickering was enough to drive anyone mad. At meetings, their arguments could easily drown out any attempts at civilized conversation.

With a light laugh, Evelyn responded with; "Yes, those two'll be there for sure. Also, there's going to be a reading and ---"

Evelyn was suddenly cut off by Lynne's mother's screech, "LYNNE! LOOK AT THE TIME! It's right in front of your nose! You do this everyday. I bought you that cell phone for a reason, young lady! USE IT! Now hurry up! I'm not going to wait forever!"

Lynne rolled her eyes, covering the receiver of the phone with the palm of her hand. "Mom! It's Monday! You have a meeting to get to, so I'm going to walk, remember?"

"Well, well. Looks like you remembered something for once in your life. I was just testing you." The door slammed as Lynne bit back a stinging reply. How _dare_ she!

Removing her hand from the receiver, Lynne's voice was still shaky, "I have to go... I'll see you at school, okay?"

"Wait! About today--" Practically slamming the phone down into it's cradle as she shook with suppressed anger, Lynne stomped to the front door, leaving her bowl of dry cereal untouched on the counter. Grabbing her backpack and slamming the door behind her, she mumbled a few profanities as she fumbled with the lock, her dark, peek-a-boo blue bangs quickly falling into her eyes. Finally getting the lock to click into place, she shoved her keys into her pocket, starting off at a jog. It was a little chilly that morning in Toronto, but she didn't really care, and wasn't about to turn back to grab a jacket. Slowing her pace now, Lynne trudged onwards, knowing she still had awhile to go before she reached her destination.

Sighing, she kept her gaze fixed solely on her feet, weaving through the early morning crowds expertly. She hardly even needed to see to get past the early morning rush. They all just seemed to part for her, with her eccentric style and sullen attitude -- Just then, she walked right into a solid wall of flesh. Muttering a quick apology, she moved to the side, attempting to get past whoever it was; only to find her way was blocked by an arm held out to stop her. Getting a little annoyed, her lips parted to deliver a stinging insult when she was cut off by a familiar voice. "Well hello there, cutie~!! Where are you off to now, hmm? School? I'm heading there too. Walk with me, cutie." He said in his sing-song-like voice. The speaker was Tyrone, AKA the Devil of the Tarot. He was darker-skinned, but of course no-one cared. He wore a white patterned jacket, and a white long-sleeve underneath. Also, he wore light jeans today, along with his favourite pair of black Vans that she was now staring at. Lynne heard herself groan,

"Dev, come on. Really? Just let me walk."

"But I am letting you walk, cutie!"

"Tyrone." She whirled to face him, shoving him into the wall of people trying to walk to work. He stumbled a bit, with a confused look on his face, "Leave me alone."

"But babe..." He whined, trying to walk towards her again. She fixed him with a glare, crossing her arms over her chest, allowing her bangs to partially cover her face.

"No." And with that, she turned and walked away, leaving him there. Tyrone had always been the annoying one who almost never left a girl alone. She could hear his calls of 'Hey!' and 'Wait up!!', but she simply ignored him, weaving through the crowds to put more distance between the two. She was certainly not in the mood for his antics today. She sighed, wondering how she'd deal with him today at the Tarot meeting...

Her cell phone started to vibrate in her pocket, and Lynne started to curse, until she pulled out her phone and saw who the sender of the text message was. It was from Jening, and she smiled as the blinking screen labelled him as 'Fool'. That was his Tarot name, and it always made her laugh. He was okay with it though, and that was all that mattered. Flipping open her phone, she quickly read the text. 'Meet you at the caf.' was what it said. Random members of the Tarot, if they wanted to talk to someone before or after-school, would usually meet by 'Emperor', Elijah's locker. Ever since creating the Tarot and drawing the card, him and his sister, 'Empress' Blaire, had always sort of lead the group. Wondering why Jening would suddenly want to meet in such a crowded, noisy place, she sent a quick reply of, 'Sure.' and shoved her phone back in her pocket.

It wasn't long after that when Lynne arrived at school, practically dodging the cars in the parking lot as she hurried inside. Her satchel was slung over her left shoulder casually as she walked into the cafeteria, trying not to attract much attention from the early morning crowd. She caught a few glares from the people studying as her chain-belt clinked, but she ignored them as she scanned the area for Jening. A frantically waving hand caught her attention, and she allowed herself a slight smirk as she walked over to his table. Dropping her bag before sitting down, she swept her hair from her face, as she knew it annoyed him to talk to her when her eyes were obscured by her sky-blue dyed bangs.

"Hey." She greeted him casually, yawning slightly.

"Hey, Lynne!" He was far too cheery for this dreadful early hour, Lynne thought. She was quite happy that he still didn't refer to her by her card. "I wanted to talk to you about something..." His voice dropped lower to not be heard over the slight buzz of chatter. He leaned in over the table, his dark hair shifting slightly as he looked around nervously, making sure there were no eavesdroppers around. He was still nervous about the whole Tarot thing, almost as if he didn't want anyone to find out about their little group's 'secret'.

"Hmm? What about...?" She asked, leaning in as well. She left plenty of space between them, tilting her head to the side as if to hear him better.

"The reading today... Lilly told me there was going to be something... special about it."

"Huh? Is there?" Lynne was confused. Lilly was one of Jening's closest friends. The two could almost always be found hanging out together. Of course, Lynne had hung up before Evelyn could actually say anything more about what was going on, but the fact that it was 'special'? Sort of laughable..

"Yeah. I didn't really get what she said. Something about the Winter Solstice being today, and it'd be during the reading..." He wore a hopeful look, almost as it she would know something more about it. Lynne wasn't wiccan or anything...

"Oh. Well, I didn't know about that. Guess we'll find out later." She leaned back, suddenly hearing something. "Is that...?"

"JENING!!" Came the voice again, drawing nearer. Jening himself looked around frantically with wide eyes. Lynne laughed,

"Is that Heiro?" By Heiro, she was referring to the Heirophant of the group, Lilly. Jening frowned as she referred to his friend as her card, but couldn't say anything before he was tackle-hugged from behind.

"Oof... Hey, Lilly." He smiled at her, about to say more, but was interrupted by Lilly herself.

"JENING! You know that computer animation thingy we have to create? I need heelllp!" She whined, tugging his arm. Just seemed to just then notice Lynne. "Oh, hey, Death!" She smiled for a moment, then her face seemed to go blank. Her voice had an eerie echoing quality, and her gaze was disturbingly piercing. "As the clock chimes the eve of the Solstice, all silence shall be to honour the Gods. One creak could enrage, and one rage could change things... Things such as your life."

Lynne stared at her, not quite understanding. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

Now it was Lilly's turn to frown. "What do I mean by what?"

"What you just said..." Lynne clarified slowly, annoyed when Lilly still looked confused. She allowed her bangs to fall back into place, not caring when Jening frowned at her. "Oh, whatever. I'll see you guys later." She scoffed, picking up her backpack again and turning away from her friends, even though she knew they'd be protesting. She needed time to think... Was that real? If so, how could Lilly not remember what she said _two seconds prior?_

The bell rang, leaving no time for her to wonder as she headed off to class.

_______________

After-school, Lynne was rummaging through her locker when all of a sudden, she heard some extremely random Lady GaGa lyrics being shouted from across the hall. She glanced over, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see both Evelyn and Quentin running her way. Both were laughing, breathless as they belted out lyrics. Skidding to a halt in front of her, Evelyn and Quentin proceeded to shout/sing,

"Ra ra, ra-ah-ah!" -- That was Evelyn --

"Roma, ro-ma-ma!" -- Quentin.

"Ga-ga, oh la la!" -- Evelyn again.

And in unison; "I WANT YO BAD ROMANCE!"

Lynne simply scowled, grabbing books from the top shelf and slamming her locker closed. "Do you two have to be so annoying?" She snapped, walking down the hall with the two close behind, bellowing out the lyrics of Lady Gaga's 'Telephone'. Evelyn suddenly stopped, laughing,

"Oh, of course! -- GUESS WHAT?! We just went through the whole school singing, AND WE EVEN GOT A MOB GOING!!"

"And! And!" Quentin interrupted, shoving Evelyn out of the way, "We got away! Just like that! Ha, I never knew running like hell actually worked!!"

"Uh-huh... That's nice, Judge." Lynne rolled her eyes, referring to Quentin as his card name. Yes, he was apart of the Tarot as well. His card was 'Judgement', though most referred to him as Judge. She helped Evelyn to her feet, then continued to walk along. Just then, she heard the sounds of thundering feet, and a chorus of angry shouts. Lynne raised an eyebrow at the two behind her as they shared a look, then a grin.

"Hey, uh, Death? Yeah, we're gonna be late for the Tarot meeting, okay? CATCH YA LATER~!" Evelyn called, both her and Quentin already speeding off. Lynne's jaw dropped as she noticed how many people ran after them. She had to flatten herself to the wall to avoid them all. She closed her eyes, waiting for everyone to pass, only to open them a few moments later to not find the empty hall she expected, but Tyrone leaning over her, a hand on the wall beside her head.

"Well hello there, cutie--"

"Ugh! Not you again." She interrupted him, pushing past and stomping down the hall. To her dismay, Tyrone followed, a smirk on his face.

"Aw, you're so cute when you're angry..."

"Shut up, Tyrone. Piss off." Lynne snapped, spinning to whack his shoulder with the textbook she carried. "You just don't get it, do you? Do you not know what 'Go away' means? How about 'Leave me alone'? You certainly hear it often enough."

"Aw, but you never mean it, do you~?" He simply laughed, making her even more pissed off than she already was.

"Like hell I don't. I mean what I say, and I say what I mean." He was really starting to get on her nerves... She walked away from him for the second time that day, her somewhat good mood from seeing Jening in the cafeteria that morning completely gone.

_____________

Entering the old music room that the Tarot usually met in, Lynne dropped her textbooks with a dusty 'thud' in the corner, throwing her book-bag down beside it. She could feel the eyes of someone on her, but she didn't really care. She stalked over to her usual chair in the corner of the old room, and stared at her watch. Three thirty is what it read. She grumbled about how nothing went as planned, and tilted her head so her bangs completely covered her eyes.

Unfortunately, her mood wasn't enough to fend off the member of the Tarot who was already there, Elijah. He was the 'Emperor' of the group, and always liked to look out for his members. He was a little bit shorter than Lynne herself, but he was definitely more mature than the rest of the group. He was in grade ten, a grade above Lynne, but he always seemed the most mature, with wisdom far beyond his years. Currently, he was frowning, looking down at Lynne with concern. "Hey..." He said softly, pulling up a chair beside her. "What's wrong?"

Lynne laughed bitterly, "Nothing." She replied, shaking her head slightly.

"It certainly doesn't look like nothing." He gave her a knowing smile, then continued, "The others won't be here for awhile... Want to talk about it?"

"Nope." She said, with an air of finality. She definitely did not want to talk about this. Not with Elijah. Not with anyone. What would she say? 'Oh yeah, Tyrone's a jerk, Mom's horrible, and people are annoying'? Oh, and better yet, she should tack on, 'And Lilly's being weird. She went all possessed-like this morning. She threatened me or something.' Now that she thought about it, it _had _been a threat, hadn't it? She certainly hadn't implied that her life would change for the better, not with all that talk of gods being disturbed - Which Lynne didn't believe a word of.

She looked back over to Elijah, peering at him from under her bangs. He was still frowning, and it was starting to get on her nerves. Sure, Elijah was a good kid an' all, but some things weren't exactly the best to talk about. She was about to say more when Blaire walked into the room, smiling. She spotted Lynne and Elijah over in the corner and giggled, obviously having the wrong impression. _What is it with people these days..._ Lynne thought, scoffing as she turned away from Elijah. He seemed oblivious to his sister's reaction, but went over to her anyways, leaving Lynne to her thoughts.

Over the next ten minutes, most of the Tarot arrived. Lilly and Jening entered the room, sitting in the far corner. They chatted for awhile, though Lynne noticed when he looked over at her, a question in his gaze. It seemed to be one of those, 'Hey, what's wrong?' sort of looks. Lynne shook her head, still not wanting to talk. She closed her eyes, missing the arrival of Tyrone, - who instantly joined Jening and Lilly - Evelyn and Quentin, - who went off to rave about their prank, and how they narrowly escaped, and Grayson, who instantly walked over to Lynne. She opened her eyes as she felt a hand on her shoulder, instantly glaring at the owner of said hand.

"Tower, I do suggest that, if you want to keep that hand, you remove it." She growled, not caring if it was just a friendly gesture. Grayson, 'Tower', instantly lifted his hand, and put both in the air in a sign of defeat.

"Sorry, Death." He muttered sadly, turning away. "You just... Looked so emo for a while there, goth girl."

"So?" She muttered, wincing as a call of,

"GRAAAYSOOOON!" was uttered from a far-too-excited Keegan, who had just entered the room. The proud blonde stood there in a long top/dress and belt ensemble, her combat boot shod feet planted firmly on the carpeted floor. Grinning from ear to ear, the two stared at each-other for a moment. This was what Lynne had been dreading... The two were just so loud, and obnoxious too.

"KEEEGAAAN!" Was his mocking reply, though his voice crackled as he tried to match the pitch of her screech. Groaning, Lynne shoved her ear-buds back into her ears, and turned up the volume until her pounding of drums and shrill, epic guitar chords drowned out the argument/greeting ritual the two were undergoing.

Many racial slurs, snide stereotypes and witty jokes later, Keegan and Grayson embraced. They looked sort of odd, for Lynne couldn't imagine them really being friends. How could you still bear to even look at someone after bickering for so long? _Guess they're like an old married couple... _Lynne thought, chuckling softly. Her eyes flicked over to Elijah, who was obviously trying to get their attention. She pulled out her iPod, turning down the volume and checking the time. It was 12:45.

Lynne had her volume up high enough that she couldn't hear what Elijah was saying, earning her a few glares from a couple people, but she didn't really care. In fact, she didn't even really know why she was still a part of the Tarot. It was just sort of tedious... But if she didn't go to meetings, Lynne wouldn't really have friends at all. Despite being terribly anti-social, she didn't actually want to be alone.

Up at the front, Elijah was flipping the first cards of the reading. He was most likely calling the names of the cards as he read them out. Who had he dedicated the reading to? What had he asked? Lynne didn't know, and at that point didn't care. Elijah was just about to flip the last card when Keegan punched Grayson's arm, looking shocked. They must be having one of their arguments again. Their voices rose above all those trying to keep the peace. Elijah dropped the last card, walking over to break up the near fist-fight the two were getting into. Of course, Grayson most likely wouldn't throw any punches, but you never knew with those two.

The room suddenly darkened, as if the dimmer had been used on the place. The piece of paper that Elijah had placed beside him on the table awhile ago seemed to float a few inches off the surface of the table, a dark red pen floating above it, furiously scrawling letters. Lynne blinked, staring at the floating objects. Was she going mad? What the hell was this?! As soon as she moved to sweep her bangs aside, the room instantly brightened once more, the pencil and paper dropping. Lynne shook her head as if to clear it, rubbing her eyes. _I must be going insane... _She thought, grabbing her backpack as Elijah went to return to the table, the conflict between Keegan and Grayson finally resolved. Scooping up her textbooks as she felt Elijah's eyes on her, she left the room without a word, missing the look of pure horror on his face as he looked from the piece of paper to Lynne's retreating back.

It was raining when Lynne finally pushed open the door, and she instantly regretted not bringing a jacket that morning. Shoving her textbooks into her bag, she hurried out into the rain, her head down and her shoulders hunched. Her teeth chattered, the biting wind chilling her to the bone. There didn't seem to be many pedestrians out, and those that were had thick jackets and big umbrellas to keep them dry. Lynne scowled at them, envious of how much warmer they were likely to be. With her head bowed, she did the one thing that she shouldn't of; she trusted her feet to carry her home.

The blaring guitar cords numbed her to much else, and soon she noticed that the light around her started to change. It started to get more artificial, like the bright signs of the city coming to life. Lynne's playlist suddenly ended, and she pulled out her iPod. She was astonished to find that two hours had passed. Flicking to another playlist, she played the music, looking around to view a neighbourhood that was totally unfamiliar to her. She sighed, pulling out her phone to call someone - Only to find it dead. Muttering a few colourful curses, she stumbled over to the nearest pay-phone, digging around in her pocket for a quarter. Lynne nervously looked around, noticing the gang tag on the side of the booth. Now that she saw that, she started to notice similar tags all around her; like there, on that shop door. She groaned, knowing she had stumbled into gang territory.

Finally finding that quarter, she placed it into the slot, and dialled the only number she had memorized; Jening's cell. She told herself not to panic as the ringing tone told her that her call had gone through. Now she was just waiting for him to pick up. She couldn't help her eyes from darting this way and that, searching for any sign of movement. It was approximately 6:23 when Jening picked up his cell phone. Hearing his, "Hello?" Lynne had to keep herself from crying out with relief. Memories of the crimes she had heard about in this neighbourhood were all she could think of.

"Oh thank god... Jening? I sort of got lost on my way home--"

"Lynne?" His voice was sharp with the worry he had obviously been feeling, "Where are you? We tried to follow you after the meeting, but..." He trailed off, but she knew what he was going to say. They had lost sight of her. When she wanted to, she could disappear along the streets pretty quickly.

"A-ah, I'm at Young and... Elm street." She replied quickly, her voice shaking slightly as she realized exactly where she was. It was the area around where the Jane Creba girl had been shot. She shivered as she remembered the story.

"Alright, I can be there in about ten minutes. I'll walk you home, okay?" Jening's voice was soft, trying to calm her, but it wasn't really working.

"Sure. See you then." She said quickly, placing the phone back in the cradle. She wanted nothing more than to get out of this dim alleyway and back onto the street.

She froze as she heard the dark chuckle behind her, and then click of a gun being cocked. "Hey there. What're you doin' here all alone, girly?" The gruff voice asked, placing the cold barrel of the gun to her temple. She could smell his horrid breath, and she flinched as he put a hand on her arm. "Now, now. I won't hurt cha.. If you give me what's in that wallet of yours." He gestured to her wallet in her pocket, the black corner of which stood out, the metal studs in the leather glinting in the half-light. She grit her teeth, going over what little self defence she knew in her mind. Almost seeing what she had to do, she let her muscles relax, earning her a crooked grin from the scruffy, body-builder-type man that held the gun to her head. "There's a girl... Now --" He was cut off as she slammed an elbow into his gut, sweeping her other arm down so it would knock the gun out of the way. His finger squeezed the trigger, and the loud bang seemed to echo in her mind, making her think back to last night and how she had heard that same sound.

Dumbfounded, she looked down to the glistening hole in her side where the gun had shot directly below her rib cage. Blood soon soaked into the black material of her shirts, and she chuckled humourlessly, too much in shock to fully acknowledge the pain that she must have been feeling. She fell to her knees, wincing as the harsh sound of bone hitting pavement reverberated in the narrow alleyway. Relaxing enough to fall to her side, she watched, entranced, as blood started to pour from the bullet wound, mixing with the rain pooling on the ground in a swirl that swept it away. The man reached over her, tugging the wallet from her pocket and stuffing it in his own. He almost looked as if he pitied Lynne as she laid there. Why would he do that? She wasn't in... _pain. _It hit her suddenly, taking her breath away. This agony wasn't like anything she had felt before. It was... indescribable.

And that was how Jening found her, two minutes later. She could hardly hear him, in as much shock as she was. Lynne blacked out, giving in to the crushing darkness willingly.

_____________

She woke up in hospital the next day, completely numb. Everything seemed... Too bright. Lynne groaned, trying to turn over, only to have a sharp stab of pain hit her side. She grimaced, but noticed how it instantly died away. Everything was... Fuzzy. An echoing voice reached her ears. Was that... Elijah?

"Lynne? Lynne, are you awake?" Was his worried voice.

She mumbled something along the lines of, "Yeah. Why's everything all fuzzy?" Of course, from the way he laughed, her words must have been terribly slurred.

"That's okay, Lynne. You don't have to talk. They gave you so much morphine that you really do sound... Well, funny." He grinned, patting her hand where it lay off to her side.

"Mmkay..." She mumbled, wanting only to fall asleep again.

Over the next week, her mother and father came to visit, and so did the rest of the Tarot. She was glad for the company, for she wasn't allowed to leave the hospital for a long while. Apparently, though the bullet had missed her vital organs, it had come close to scraping a few, and the hospital staff were wary to let her go, lest infection set in. Those days passed without much excitement, and she was practically begging her friends to stay each time they visited. Gone was the sullen goth girl that they had known before.

Here to stay was the new, changed Lynne. Odd how near-death experiences change people.


End file.
